Chyler Leigh Juggles Acting, Marriage, and Mothering

Chyler Leigh calls half an hour late for her interview,
bubbling over with apologies. The Grey's Anatomy star has spent the
morning keeping an eye on her 3-year-old daughter, Taelyn, who's home from
preschool with a fever. Most moms might not have even noticed the little girl's
slight temperature spike -- a bit over 99 degrees -- the night before. But
Taelyn suffers from febrile seizures, so Leigh must be extra vigilant.

"The first time it happened, I was at home and had no idea what
was going on," Leigh recalls. "Most seizures end after a few minutes, but hers
went on for 25 minutes. We got an ambulance and went to the emergency room, and
she was fine. It was a virus, and the fever just spiked too high too fast. But
it's scary. Any time she's warm, we watch her."

The busy mom of three has plenty of experience managing
childhood health crises. Leigh's 6-year-old, Noah, has logged his share of ER
visits: "He busted his chin on the ground when he decided he wanted to slide
like a penguin. He smacked his head on the ground when he was trying to spin
and got his pants stuck under his feet and wound up with a huge goose egg that
looked like his brains were coming out," she recalls. "Taelyn fell off the play
equipment at school and hit her nose on a metal chair. She had blood coming
down her nose -- she looked like a Klingon."

When baby Anniston joined the clan in May 2009, Leigh and her
husband, actor Nathan West, had a full house. With her Grey's storyline as
Meredith Grey's half-sister, Lexie, heating up, Leigh confesses that her hectic
schedule sometimes has her feeling like "the oldest 27-year-old on the planet.
I work, and I'm a full-time mom, and it's hard for me to sit down and relax
because it's like, crap, there's something I'm forgetting!"

To survive with a brood of three, Leigh swears by organization.
"Nathan and I sit down on the weekends, and we go through all our appointments
and whatever we have to get done that week, and plan our strategy," she says.
"If I'm available in the morning one day and he is in the afternoon, then I'll
take the kids to school that day. There will always be the occasional wrench
thrown in, but when you plan ahead, you're better able to handle stuff like
that."